NICAP UFO Investigator / May 1970, p. 3

The Book is Closed (but who will have the
last word)

Robert C. Seamans, Jr.(jc: picture added 6/1/02)

The Air Force has written the final chapter to its opus on the unidentified.
On December 17, 1969, Air Force Secretary Robert C. Seamans, Jr. announced closure
of Project Blue Book, the Government's 21-year old investigation of UFOs. "Continuation
of the Project," said Seamans, "cannot be justified either on the ground of
national security or in the interest of science."

With the termination came recision of AF Regulation 80-17, which provided for
Blue Book's operation and related policies on public information. The regulation
was promulgated in September of 1966 to facilitate Air Force support of the
Colorado Project, which began the following month. AFR 80-17 superseded AFR
200-2, the old 1953 regulation for the UFO program.

Blue Book's door closed literally at 3:30 p.m. EST on January 30, 1970, the
day the Project office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio was officially
manned for the last time. The famous Blue Book files had already been packed
in boxes and started on their trip south to Air Force archives at Maxwell AFB
in Alabama. Lt.Col. Hector Quintanilla, chief Blue Book officer, was slated
for a transfer assignment at Wright-Patterson until his retirement from the
Air Force in April.

Demise of the Project proved no occasion for nostalgia. Having
long contended that UFOs evidenced no threat to national defense, the
Air Force had privately viewed its UFO assignment as something of a
monkey on the back. Predictably, there was conjecture that the
closure was just one more stratagem in a cover-up of government
attempts to probe the UFO mystery. But Pentagon officials insisted
the Air Force exit was just what it seemed -- final.

JC: As a point of information, Major Keyhoe's retirement at age
72, was announced in the same issue. He was director of NICAP for 13
years.